Z-Curve-Sweeper Node-Group For Blender 3.0+

Tomorrow's Curve-To-Mesh, Today!

Introducing the Z-Curve-Sweeper node-group.

This is a low-level Geometry-Nodes node-group which simplifies many tasks faced by intermediate to experienced authors of generative curve-sweep-based node-groups.

It works like the standard curve-to-mesh node, but has many additional super-powers:

All-in-one package:

Z-Curve-Sweeper is like the curve-to-mesh node with a bunch of additional convenient inputs and outputs to simplify many curve-sweep, curve-offset, UV-mapping or profile-capture types of set-ups. The downloadable Blender file includes an example for Z-Curve-Sweeper's basic use-cases.

Features

• Works in Blender 3.0+ (will attempt to update whenever Blender exits Beta from a minor version)
• All node-groups work with geometries that have multiple curves existing on it and treats combinations of cyclic, pseudo-cyclic (disconnected, non-cyclic curves that have end-points at the same location) or non-cyclic curves properly.
• Even-Thickness option will ensure the profile is scaled appropriately along the bisects to get rid of "squash". (Good for arch-vis type setups)
• Supports Curve, Mesh and/or Point-cloud profile input.
• Convenience output for Swept Profile Curves.
• Z-Up Tilt acts exactly like the Z-Up twist method but works for any generated curve.
• Z-Up Project ensures the profile is always projected in the Z-Up-Tangent Plane (Fantastic for some arch-vis setups, but not much else)
• Option to treat any profile as points to sweep out curves along the guiding curve. (e.g. Generate bundles of twisted offset curves easily)
• Has UV and CapMask outputs for use in the Shader Editor.
• Fill-Caps works for disconnected profiles.
• Convenience output of profile curves and profile curve instances.
• Disconnect curve/profile options allow for UV correction and separate Disconnect Cyclic Curves node-group available for Mobius-type cyclic curve tilt setups.
• Examples and instructions to add Z-Curve-Sweeper node-group to your own project in the .blend file.

NOTES:

Works in Blender 3.0+. (*caution: expect instability in alpha/beta versions of Blender.)

As a low-level generative node-group, it should be treated with the same type of caution you treat any node-group that can potentially create enough geometry to crash Blender on your system - so keep geometry statistics on when working with this node-group and be conscious of how much load you are putting on your system. Note which parameters (or attributes) in your setup are likely to cause "explosions" in geometry (or vertex count) and keep those low (or clamp them to reasonable limits).

Additional credit to BlenderArtist.org users:

Hadriscus (helped me understand delta-calculations in Blender 3.0 which eventually allowed me to make the Poly-Curve Info node-group. Original thread here)

Xeofrios (helped with Blender 3.0 implementation of Disconnect Cyclic Curves node-group which made all the corrective UV mapping and Mobius-Curve stuff possible. Original thread here)

quellenform (Helped with face-corner UV method. Check out their project)

Also, big thanks to Hans Goudey and Johnny Matthews' work on curves in geometry nodes (and YouTube content).

First product! This took a lot of work to make so I hope someone finds it useful. Suggested price is 0 but please feel free to add extra if you or your team are using it a lot.

Feedback and issues can be reported here.

Happy Blending!

Updates:

• 2022/03/04: v0.4 Fixed issue with even-thickness on Bezier curves.
• 2022/03/07: v0.4.1 Object Profile added. (can now be used as drop-in replacement for a Curve Object Bevel)
• 2022/03/09: v0.5 Blender 3.1 version with fix for face orientation for disconnected profile caps.
• 2022/03/23: v0.6.1 Performance improvements of around 15% using Blender 3.1 features.
• 2022/04/13: v0.6.3 Face-Corner UV generation added. Method is quite slow so only use when profile/curve not disconnected or you would like to avoid the "seam" in shade-smooth.
• 2022/05/15: v0.6.4 Blender 3.2 version. Massive changes with more modular approach. See details here.